Thousands of California nurses to hold day strike

Thousands of California nurses are planning to walk off the job for one day later this month, a union official said Saturday.

About 4,000 registered nurses in the San Francisco Bay Area who work at eight Sutter hospitals will hold the one-day strike Dec. 22, said California Nurses Association spokesman Charles Idelson.

Also walking off the job will be 2,000 nurses who work at Long Beach Memorial Hospital and the adjoining Miller Children's Hospital in Southern California. The hospitals are not operated by Sutter, but nurses at the facility, which is part of the MemorialCare Health System, are involved in a separate contract dispute, Idelson said.

Talks between the union and the hospitals have been going on for most of the year, with nurses unhappy over a number of issues, including health care coverage, sick leave and patient care concerns, Idelson said.

"We have tried very hard to come to an agreement with this very aggressive and arrogant hospital chain," Idelson said of Sutter.

Sutter argues that most nurses represented by the California Nurses Association have an option of a 100 percent employer-paid health benefits package and 40 paid days off per year.

Sutter spokesman Bill Gleeson criticized the union for calling a strike during the holiday season.

"It's always tough for patients and families to be in the hospital, but it's especially unfortunate the union has chosen to strike just before Christmas," Gleeson said.

The hospital chain was contacting agencies to hire replacement nurses during the strike, Gleeson said.

The planned walkout comes after union officials said an estimated 23,000 nurses at 33 hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and the independent Children's Hospital Oakland, went on a one-day strike in September.

Hospital officials disputed that figure at the time, saying many nurses had crossed the picket line.

That strike was followed by controversy when a cancer patient died at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland while being cared for by a replacement who had been hired when the returning nurses were locked out by the hospitals immediately after the strike.

Officials at the hospital acknowledged that Judith Ming, 66, died from a medical error.

The upcoming strike will affect Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Mills-Peninsula Health Services hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Solano in Vallejo and Eden Medical Center hospitals in Castro Valley and San Leandro.